Global SITREP E9-14: Israel's Zero Hour - The Gibor Option

2 December 2014: PM Bibi Netanyahu has fired from their cabinet positions Justice Minister Tzipi Livni and Finance Minister Yair Lapid and will shortly dissolve the Knesset in order to hold new elections. This is what most of the corporate media are reporting. I would report that the government of PM Netanyahu finally collapsed as a direct result of the failed Operation Protective Edge and rampant infighting within Netanyahu's governing coalition. I would also report that I am surprised it took this long for the collapse to occur. Bibi has other problems to deal with, namely installing the next Chief of Staff (likely Maj. Gen. Gadi Eizenkot) and Deputy Chief of Staff (likely Maj. Gen. Yair Golan) of the IDF into their respective positions without much  ado and further political turmoil. Once this dust settles we may get a clearer picture of what 2015 may hold in store. The average religious Israeli is probably wondering, "Where's our Moshiach ben Yossef when we need him?"

27 November 2014: A year and ten days ago I posted to Eschatology Today the final update for the fictional Operation Gibor: Iran Strike Scenario Simulation. That very realistic scenario was crafted in the heady days of years gone by when everybody, even the Obama Administration, was hand-wringing in great expectancy over the very real prospect of an Israeli preemptive airstrike against the Iranian nuclear program. Many reports held that the Saudi's and the GCC states had given their tacit assent to IAF overflights during the mission. Iran would not be forewarned. 

For all intents and purposes most military observers and analysts now assess that the previously existent 'window of opportunity' for a long-range IAF preemptive strike spearheaded by F-16I Sufa and F-15I Ra'am aircraft has been closed. Israel, under the leadership of PM Bibi Netanyahu, took a very high-stakes gamble and aborted a planned airstrike at the last minute, most recently in 2012, according to most knowledgeable accounts. The aborted preemptive was in deference to Israel's supposed US and EU allies whose sanctions and negotiations with the Hojjatieh-led Iran had to be given a minimum of a fortuitous opportunity to succeed. 

Now in late 2014, the "really bad deal" of 2013 has given way to the utter failure of the P5+1 negotiations with Iran. Truth is - they never had any chance of success to begin with. If you've not done so already, just watch the MEMRI video embedded in SITREP E8 below to see the epic P5+1 failure in living color. Another seven to eight months of worthless banter with the Iranian Hojjatieh al-Mahdi-hastening lunatics will result in just that many more Iranian nuclear weapons, unless... Israel seizes what's left of the initiative and snatches victory from the threat of a nuclear incineration of Tel Aviv and Haifa, and does so real soon.

My current assessment is that the only option Israel has remaining to stop a nuclear-armed Iran in its tracks most preferably begins with a series of non-nuclear preemptive EMP strikes as postulated in the fictional scenario linked above. The image at the top is of a real-world nuclear EMP-generating airburst. This is not a Sampson Option, it is what I will call The Gibor Option. There is a big difference between the two. The Sampson Option is a nuclear annihilation scenario. The Gibor Option, as the ancient Hebrew word implies, is a mighty option, a potentially non-nuclear fallout option. This option does not turn Iran into a sea of radioactive green glass, but turns the mullahs regime and dreams of an al-mahdi back into the 9th century where they rightfully belong.

This option envisions a series of non-nuclear EMP detonations over western and central portions of the country that will literally turn off everything in Iran. Afterwords there will be no communications, no discrete computing chips, no power, Iran as it was when that alleged mahdi fell into a well never to be seen or heard of again. This option, if executed, could potentially turn out to be a literal fulfillment of one prophetic verse: Jeremiah 49:36a which reads: "Against Elam I will bring the four winds from the four quarters of heaven."

Still, we must patiently wait to see how the Lord will bring Jeremiah 49:34-39 into fulfillment.

Global SITREP E7-14: Advancing Our Situational Awareness of 'Last Days' Wars

20 November 2014: SITREP E7-14 is a work in progress, and it is as focused an attempt as I can manage to advance our situational awareness of the wars that will occur in these 'last days'. This is one of the most important SITREPs on Eschatology Today. It is a one-post overview of five-part series The Prophetic Road to Revelation linked below. I define the phrase 'last days' as encompassing the time remaining between the present and the onset of Christ's Millennial Kingdom, how ever long that duration of time may actually turn out to be. As we approach what men have declared will be the year 2015 AD, I happen to believe these 'last days' could constitute a relatively short span of time, perhaps a decade and a half at most. I am absolutely certain these 'last days' will be shortened by the Lord in order to prevent the extinction of human life from planet earth. Within a microsecond at any point prior to the start of Israel's 70th Week the Bride of Christ will be taken from this earth in the Harpazo, otherwise known as the Rapture.

As a starting point I'll begin in the very near future, in a post-Psalm 83 world in which Israel will have vanquished those enemies with an 'olam ebah' ancient hatred of the God and people of Israel. These enemies are primarily Sunni and may well manifest themselves on this coming battlefield in the form of the newly declared Islamic State and its Wilayat (provinces). In this near-future world the situational awareness brief would hold that Damascus is a city which no longer exists as described by Isaiah 17 and Jeremiah 49:23-27. In this world there will have been effected a military 'one-state solution; there will be no such thing as a West Bank or a Gaza, there will only be Israel.  Israel will be territorially expanded beyond her present frontiers and, at the minimum, have military control to the north over the whole of Lebanon (Joshua 13:1-7), Syria as far as the Euphrates River to the northeast, western Jordan (Ezekiel 39:11), and the northern Sinai to the Wadi al-Arish and possibly even further south as indicated by Isaiah 19:18-25.

In this time, which is apparently still prior to the advent of the 70th Week (Daniel 9:20-27), Israel will be a an economic power doing robust mercantile business with the Arabian Peninsula and the European Union (Ezekiel 38:13) and other nations of the world. Israel will be at peace, living in safety and security (Ezekiel 38:10-11). By now you have discerned that I am referring to the time just prior to the attempt by a confederation of nations led by the resurgent Russia, its commonwealth of nominally independent, former Soviet states (the military alliance known as the CSTO in other words), along with a lesser group of military powers such as Iran, Libya and Sudan.

At this point we need to take a quick diversion to discover why the Islamic Republic of Iran is not the menacing, nascent nuclear threshold military power that the P5+1 and Israel are currently concerned about. The diversion takes us to Jeremiah 49:34-39 and the second sentence of that passage (verse 35) which states clearly and unequivocally, "Thus says the Lord of hosts: 'Behold, I will break the bow of Elam, the foremost of their might." I believe this verse is a direct reference to Iran's intended delivery system for the nuclear weapons the majority Shi'a Islamic nation is now attempting to arm itself with. The remainder of these verses detail what I have long interpreted to be a preemptive conventional military suppression of Iran by a coalition of nations who come from every direction of the compass.

While it is not known precisely when this fulfillment might occur, we can look to the recent past of the paragraph above concerning Psalm 83 to see that Iran did not play a role of belligerence and armorer of Israel enemies in the final fulfillment of the Psalm 83 war that it is currently casting itself in. There is a reason why Asaph did not itemize Persian participation in the Psalm 83 scenario. In sum, by the time Ezekiel 38/39 comes to fulfillment, Iran is a lesser military power that it is in late 2014, but Iran is not so weak that it cannot participate in the Ezekiel 38/39 attempt by Gog of Magog's confederation of forces invasion. This indicates the Jeremiah 49:34-39 in another prophecy of the end-times prophecies which goes through a process of literal fulfillment, not unlike Psalm 83 which is now in its 66th year of fulfillment process. We'll come back to this shortly.

At this point I will put a few key prophecies in a comparative spotlight.  The prophets Jeremiah and Ezekiel reiterate key points of the same prophetic word given to them by the Lord. I have often searched for Scripture to parallel what is written in Ezekiel 36-39. I believe that parallel exists in Jeremiah 30:1-7 regarding the restoration of Israel and Judah to the land and a point blank reference which ties this restoration directly to the time of Jacobs trouble (i.e. the final 42-months of the Megas Thlipsis). In this set of verses we see a period of time that literally holds within its context a minimum of 1947-48 to at least two and one half decades into the 21st century (according to the generational template of Psalm 90:10). Again, a process of fulfillment is maintained in the plain text of the prophecy.

Then at Jeremiah 30:10b there is something that should be very familiar to all students of prophecy: "Jacob shall return, have rest and be quiet, and no one shall make him afraid." Compare this with Ezekiel 38:11 which says: "You will say, ‘I will go up against a land of unwalled villages; I will go to a peaceful people, who dwell safely, all of them dwelling without walls, and having neither bars nor gates’" That these are things of the 'last days' is beyond question as Jeremiah writes, "In the latter days you will consider it." 

Jeremiah 30:16 reads, "Therefore all those who devour you shall be devoured; and all your adversaries, every one of them, shall go into captivity; those who plunder you shall become plunder, and all who prey upon you I will make a prey." Turning immediately to Ezekiel  39:10b the identical judgment is pronounced: "...Israel...will plunder those who plundered them, and pillage those who pillaged them,” says the Lord God."

Another prophetic parallel is found between Jeremiah 31:33-34, where it is written, "But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. No more shall every man teach his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.”" This is clearly a direct reference to what the Lord says in Ezekiel 39:29, "And I will not hide My face from them anymore; for I shall have poured out My Spirit on the house of Israel,’ says the Lord God." 

Is there any doubt these things are specifically the Lord God's dealings with Israel that will be occurring during the 70th Week, the purpose of which the angel Gabriel informed of Daniel by saying:

"Seventy weeks are determined
For your people and for your holy city,
To finish the transgression,
To make an end of sins,
To make reconciliation for iniquity,
To bring in everlasting righteousness,
To seal up vision and prophecy,
And to anoint the Most Holy."

Since we are looking at the 70th Week, I must now turn to Daniel 11:40 and make an important note that the "him," and the "he" in this verse are direct references to the Antichrist, the rest of the plain text is virtually self-explanatory. "At the time of the end the king of the South shall attack him; and the king of the North shall come against him like a whirlwind, with chariots, horsemen, and with many ships; and he shall enter the countries, overwhelm them, and pass through." And where is "he" at this time when these armies from the south and the north attack him? I  think he  is in Israel at this time which gives us the point of reference for identifying the directions from which these enemies come against him.

Let me ask a question here.  Are there two invasions of Israel in the last days? Is Daniel 11:40 a different end time war than the one Ezekiel prophecies about with enemies coming from both the north and south of Israel? If so, then during what period of time would Israel have men set aside to mark and bury the dead in the Valley of the Passengers/Hamonah east of the Dead Sea or be burning the enemy weaponry for the subsequent seven years?

Before these questions are answered, I will pose another necessary question that needs to be addressed first. Does Israel currently dwell in all of the land the God promised to them “for all time”?

According to Joshua 1:4 (Joshua ben Nun) the answer is no, Israel does not yet possess all of the land God has promised to them for all time. That land includes the entire wilderness that Joshua’s feet have trod upon; plus Lebanon, and all of the land to the east as far as the Euphrates River, plus all of the land of the ancient Hittites towards the west where the sun sets shall be Israel’s sea coast border. Going back further to the Abrahamic Covenant, the land is detailed in Genesis 13:14-17 and in Genesis 15:18-21. 

During Joshua’s time the Hittites were in the era known as the ‘New Kingdom’ circa 1400-1200 BC. This Hittite territory was in what is today virtually all of central Turkey and extended in a strip of land westward to the Aegean Sea. The Hittites were the principle enemy of the Egyptian pharaohs.

When will Israel take full possession of the land God has promised to them “for all time”? That answer depends on which scholar of the Bible one makes such an inquiry.  However, based upon my studies it appears full possession of the promised land will occur in stages over a certain, and now decidedly limited, amount of time. It will also be conditional or dispensational to the time when Israel is fully within the new covenant relationship with God and Christ on the throne in Jerusalem during the Millennium. Everything that has happened to Israel over time, at the present and into the future is for the purpose of God fulfilling His covenant with Abraham, and the 70^th Week prophecy given by the angel Gabriel is without question the culmination of that promise. This is when Israel will take full possession of the promised covenant lands. 

I believe the ‘last days’ wars are key to the acquisition of the promised possession. These wars commenced with the Psalm 83 war and will conclude with the Magog war and the wars of Israel’s 70^th Week. As it is written in Jeremiah 30:16, thus says the Lord, “‘Therefore all those who devour you shall be devoured; and all your adversaries, every one of them, shall go into captivity; Those who plunder you shall become plunder, and all who prey upon you I will make a prey.” So much for Turkey being a dominant force during the 70^th Week according to some theories.

Let’s return now to the questions I posed above.  

Are there two invasions of Israel in the last days? That depends on some specifics, such as if at the time of Daniel 11:40 the Antichrist in Israel with power and authority at the start of the 70^th Week. It occurs to me that for the literal fulfillment of John 5:43 his physical presence in Israel would appear to be a necessity. After all, it is this impostor of Moshiach ben David's 7-year covenant that Israel will accept in their misguided belief that he will be Moshiach ben David. I think the covenant he makes with the expanded great power that Israel will be at that time is a 7-year ‘partnership for peace’ between the Antichrist’s EU/NATO and Israel. 

Therefore, is Daniel 11:40 a different 'last days' war than the one Ezekiel 38/39 prophecies about with enemies coming from both the north and south of Israel?  I think not. While there is no mention of Temple worship and the associated rituals, that omission may merely be an indicator that the Temple structures complex on Mount Moriah (Zion) remains under construction or is nearly completed but unconsecrated at that time.

The  start of the 70^th Week is precisely 42 months prior to the Abomination of Desolation. It should be obvious that those  42 months amounts to a very short, finite amount of time; just enough for one great world war centered in the Middle East around Israel, but not two.  I have come to think that these Scriptures indicate the Magog Confederation invasion occurs when Israel is living in a false sense of peace and security during the first 42 months of the 70^th Week (the Thlipsis). God supernaturally destroys five-sixths of those enemies and send fire upon Magog Confederation's homelands and those dwelling securely in the coastlands. However, Antichrist is there with his False Prophet and all the attendant signs and lying wonders to usurp full credit of the miraculous defeat of the Magog Confederation's forces. And the people will believe this lie, as can be seen in the great overview of this period given to us by Paul in 2 Thessalonians 2:1-11, with particular respect to verse 11.

Then there's the second 42 months of the 70th Week, the Megas Thlipsis, and I believe Daniel 11: 41-45 are a brief overview of that period of time, with verse 44 directly related to the gathering Antichrist's forces at Harmagedōn (a/k/a Armageddon) to square off against a remnant army from the north and the approaching massive army of the kings of the east (image at the top) for whom the Euphrates River has been prepared for their passing over. But instead of fighting each other these forces square off to wage war upon Jesus Christ and His Saints at the Second Coming.

This now leaves one final question I posed above:  During what period of time would the fulfillment of Ezekiel 39:11-16 occur where Israel has men set aside and employed to mark and bury the dead soldiers  of the Magog Confederation in the Valley of the Passengers east of the Dead Sea? When would Israel be burning the enemy's weaponry for a subsequent seven years of time? Could this activity not be occurring at the start of the Millennium? I think the answer here is an affirmative.

This has been an attempt to advance an understanding of the ‘last days’ wars in consideration that there does not appear to be enough time left with the outside limit set by Psalm90:10 for all these prophetic things to take place and in consideration of the Lord cutting short those days into order that mankind survive the Megas Thlipsis.  Do not consider this to be chiseled in stone doctrine or dogma; it’s an interpretation of many inter-related Scriptures which I pray will lead to increased Bereanism by all.

Addendum: An Eschatological Clarification

 Daniel chapter 10 and 11 are the angel Gabriel's instructive narrative to the prophet Daniel of world events - primarily warfare and conflicts waged by European kings and their kingdoms in the Middle East across a great span of time totaling 27 centuries (6th century BC to the 21st century AD).

These two chapters are an indispensable key to unlocking and understanding 'last days' events; primarily leaders, battles and wars, and the future of Israel across this great expanse of time to the 'last days'.

The prelude to this entire narrative (Daniel 10:1-9) by the angel Gabriel occurs when Daniel is lying beside the Tigris (Hiddekel) River, in present-day Iraq which was at that time under the control of the Medo-Persian Empire (the second great world empire) and Daniel has an incredible vision of Gabriel in all of his angelic glory.

Gabriel begins the narrative by relating to Daniel how there are angelic contests involving Gabriel and Michael against other angelic beings which determine which kingdoms on the earth rise and which fall.

Gabriel begins this narrative be describing when the rise of the Macedonian-Greek king Alexander the Great (Alexander III of Macedon) and his world empire would occur (the third great world empire).

From Alexander the narrative of Gabriel traces a bloodline, a genetic lineage of kings to the forerunner of the Antichrist, Antiochus IV Epiphanes. Antiochus wars against the Macedonian-Greek kings of Ptolemaic Egypt are vividly described, as is his all important encounter in 168-67 BC with the rising fourth great world empire, the Roman Empire. The details of this are found in Daniel 11:29-31.

There is a seamless transition in Daniel 11 between the forerunner Antichrist Antiochus IV Epiphanes and the future Antichrist of Israel's 70th Week. This evokes the bloodline, a direct genetic link between the two. I believe this transition, a literal leap forward in time of more than 2,100 years plus a generation (this generation) occurs in the empty space between verses 35 and 36 of Daniel 11.

In Daniel 36 through 39 the angel Gabriel foretells the coming Antichrist's exploits in the near future and his rise to power, his takeover of entire nations at the start of the 70th Week.

Daniel 11:40 therefore is a battle which occurs during the early part of the 70th Week. I think this could well be the same battle as the Lord had Ezekiel prophesy about in chapters 38 and 39.

Then in Daniel 11:41-43 there's the European Antichrist's retaliatory military campaign of conquest throughout the eastern Mediterranean region.

Finally, Gabriel ends the narrative at verse 44 in what I believe is the intelligence report Antichrist receives informing him of the approach of massive armies - a remnant army from the north and the army of the kings of the East heading for the Euphrates River which has been dried up for their crossing. This is the stage setting for the final battle of Har Megadone (Armageddon) at the end of the 70th Week.

We all know what happens next.

Marana'tha!

Global SITREP E6-14: Isaiah and Ezekiel Confirm Israel's Total Victory Over Psalm 83 Enemies

18 November 2014: It was a rough day in Israel today. A very bloody day. Muslim savages launched a terror attack in a Jerusalem synagogue that was nothing less than wholesale butchery of Jew's who were worshiping YHWH. And the PA government leaders and the Muslim people all around the region celebrated this wanton act of barbarism. A week ago I briefly reiterated the warning circulating that something like this was being urgently warned about in Israel by the IDF. Today would have borne witness to even larger terrorist atrocity, but the Muslim terrorist at the HaHagana Tel Aviv train station with a Carl Gustav sub-machine gun in his possession was interdicted by Israeli law enforcement almost certainly just in the nick of time. The HaHagana train station is where an IDF soldier was butchered by an illegal alien Muslim savage just a week ago.

As ghastly as this attack was I noted early on that ALL American media totally botched accurate reporting of what had occurred in the synagogue. No doubt we're all aware of the CNN reporting that the butchery occurred in a Jerusalem mosque. CBS, ABC and the NBC family of networks also had their moments of journalistic (I use this word loosely) infamy today as well. Even FoxNews got into the act this morning when Steve Doocy laid a goose egg when he informed viewers it was likely that Westerners were the targets of the terrorist attack in Jerusalem. No, Steve, Islamic savages did not go to a synagogue because they thought they might find Westerners inside, they deliberately chose a synagogue because they were absolutely certain they'd find unarmed and defenseless Jews in that house of worship. Duh! To be fair, Doocy got it half right without even saying so, because the fact is that more American civilians have been slaughtered by so-called 'Palestinian' Muslim savages this year than by Islamic State Muslim savages -- not that there is any real difference between the two groups of Muslim savages. And across the pond in jolly ol' Londonistan a BBC interviewer had the unmitigated gall to tell Naftali Bennett that he could not display an image of the three American and one British Jewish victims. No doubt you all understand by now that it would be an understatement for me to say that I utterly detest the corporate media. I have no use for any of them.

While the likelihood is high that there will occur more of this kind of atrocity in the immediate future, and the fact that it occurred can be directly linked to PM Netanyahu's failure to get the job done in Gaza this past summer, I believe we can look to Bible prophecy to find assurance that there is coming a day very soon when this sort of thing will be nothing but a sad memory in Israel. The great sea of Muslim savages have an appointment that they are not aware of. It has been appointed unto them to become as domen (dung) for the earth (Psalm 83:9-10) in the near future. The prophets Isaiah and Ezekiel have also both related to us the God-breathed prophecies about the time in the very near future when Israel will no longer be subject to such barbarism as this. 

In Isaiah 11:14 we have the prophecy of a united Israel destroying these enemies once and for all time:

"But they shall fly upon the shoulders of the Philistines toward the west; they shall spoil them of the east together: they shall lay their hand upon Edom and Moab; and the children of Ammon shall obey them."

In Ezekiel 28:24 we have the exact same prophetic word given: 

"And there shall be no more a pricking brier unto the house of Israel, nor any grieving thorn of all that are round about them, that despised them; and they shall know that I am the Lord God."

We are coming to a point where an Israeli leader will decide that enough is enough, that too much innocent blood has been shed; that never again will Israel submit to genocide means that Israel will never again submit to genocide. And when this happens the Psalm 83 prophecy we are so aware of an expect to occur will have come to its fulfillment well prior to the 70th Week. This victory will set the stage for the Israel, still in unbelief for the most part, that will then find itself living in the peace and security that Jeremiah 30:10 and Ezekiel 38:11 have promised will occur before the 70th Week arrives.

Marana'tha!

Global SITREP E5-14: Beholding The Truth About Armageddon

16 November 2014: As with many of the posts here, this one is about Bible prophecy. Be forewarned, this will not be a sugar-coated treatise on what lies in the immediate future. 

In Daniel 9:26c the angel Gabriel spoke these prophetic words to Daniel: "The end of it shall be with a flood, and till the end of the war desolations are determined."  Thus for the one-thousand nine-hundred forty-four years since the sacking of Jerusalem and the complete destruction of the Second Temple of God on Zion (Mount Moriah) in 70 AD have the continuous wars heralding the end of the present ago of mankind raged. And the final prophetic flood is just barely being restrained at the gates. 

In our Lord Jesus Christ's sermon on the Mount of Olives He foretold a more detailed reiteration of Gabriel's prophecy what would occur in the final 42 months of the 70th Week. This, He said, would follow immediately after the image of the Antichrist is stood up in the Holy Place of the 3rd Temple on Zion (Mount Moriah):  "For then there will be great tribulation (megas thlipsis), such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be. And unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved; but for the elect’s sake those days will be shortened." 

Now most people who are known by His Name will immediately and correctly relate this statement to the passage in The Revelation of Jesus Christ found in chapter sixteen, verses twelve through sixteen. However, that is not the complete picture that Scripture provides to us. In no way do I belittle this God-breathed Scripture, yet in my studies I found it to be missing prophetic detail found elsewhere in Scripture that provides vivid detail of occurs in those final 42 months, especially right up to the very moment preceding Jesus' Second Coming. We know the earth will be shattered under the judgments of God during the whole of the 70th Week, but there is far more detail given of the complete prophetic picture.

For that more complete prophetic picture we must turn to the prophet Isaiah and his direct call from God Almighty to become His prophet two-thousand seven-hundred fifty-four years ago. The date of Isaiah's call to be a prophet was in 740-739 BC when King Uzziah of Judah, who was afflicted with leprosy over the period of a decade for his failure to obey God, finally passed away. 

Isaiah 6 tells us of his realization of being a hopeless dead man covered from his lips to his toes in his sins, and of his immediate repentance to God upon seeing the Lord sitting upon a throne. And Isaiah thereafter was instantly confessing the sins which made him totally unworthy to view the immense power, Holiness and Glory which he beheld in front of his eyes. Then upon the confession of his sins Isaiah speaks to the sight of mighty and majestic pair of six-winged seraphim which stood above the temple of God. As an aside and for what it might be worth to the reader, I would like to note here that Isaiah's description of the disposition of the seraph's six wings (two wings folded over the face, two to fly with and two wings covering the feet) appeared to my mind's eye as a representation of what we know as the Star of David. Whenever I see the Star of David, I see a representation of the majestic seraph standing above the Temple of God.

Then, immediately following Isaiah's confession of his sins, one of he seraph's flew to Isaiah, touching his lips with a live coal from the burning altar before God and declaring the removal of his iniquity and the purging of all sin from him. Isaiah the prophet was born-again in the presence of God at the very moment he is called to prophecy. And Isaiah hears the voice of YHWH God speaking, "Who shall I send, who will carry forth for us?" Isaiah's response is immediate, "Here am I; Send me!" 

What YHWH God says next to Isaiah is most instructive, even in our day! It is a direct repetition of what God had instructed Moses about, and Moses in turn had spoken directly to all of Israel in the Covenant of Moab found in Deuteronomy 29:2-4. (See also: Romans 11) So to Isaiah the Lord God specifically identifies "this people" who Isaiah is to speak the prophetic word to:

"Go, and tell this people:

‘Keep on hearing, but do not understand;
Keep on seeing, but do not perceive.’

Make the heart of this people dull,
And their ears heavy,
And shut their eyes;
Lest they see with their eyes,
And hear with their ears,
And understand with their heart,And return and be healed."

No question about it, Isaiah is to prophecy about these things to Israel, and we, in turn, receive this word through the inspired recorded Lord's word, the Holy Bible. 

Now here's where the exquisite details about the final forty-two months of the Megas Thlipsis (Great Tribulation) are made clear. After being told by God who he is to tell these things to, Isaiah asks a question: "Lord, how long?" And the Lord God gives His response to this which is completely unambiguous even though the language is more than 27 centuries old:

"Until cities are devastated, without inhabitant,
Houses are without people
And the land is utterly desolate,

The Lord has removed men far away,
And the forsaken places are many in the midst of the land.

Yet there will be a tenth portion in it,
And it will again be subject to burning,
Like a terebinth or an oak
Whose stump remains when it is felled.
The holy seed is its stump."

Planet earth today is home to something over 7.2 billion people and that number is growing annually by about 72 million additional people. By he end of the 42 months of the Megas Thlipsis the number of mankind who survive because God will have shortened the days in order to save what human life remains will be but a tenth of the number alive when the 70th Week began. There will be no cities and no one will be living in them. The remainder of the land will be utterly desolate.

I would roughly estimate that number will be just under 8 billion people living at the time. In real numbers that means every person who is alive today, all 7.2 billion of them, and excepting only those taken by Jesus Christ at the instant of the Harpazo, will have been killed. The remnant tenth of human life upon the earth will number 800 million, and of those (the 200 million of the army of the kings of the East, plus the armies of the Beast gathered at Har Megiddo) will be dispatched into eternity as described in Revelation 19:17-21.

The remnant of mankind, perhaps 600 million or so, will be the stump spoken of in the prophecy directly from God to Isaiah above. All men are created in the image of God, and this is the holy seed of the stump of mankind that will repopulate the earth during the 1,000 years of the Millennial Kingdom of Jesus Christ.

So, as stated many times here, the flood of prophetic fulfillment is about to commence; the Restrainer who is currently holding back the flood at the gates will soon be taken out of the way. Will you be one of those who will soon be swept away by the irresistible force of the flood and into oblivion and the second death for all eternity? Or will you gaze upon and recognize Jesus Christ, God Incarnate, as Isaiah gazed upon and recognized God Almighty, and begin confessing your sin and unworthiness and thereby receive the eternal life the Lord has promised to all that would receive Him into their heart. At this time do you dare deny He is who He has proven Himself to be? It up to you, no one can do this for you. Your future is right now and it lies between just you and the God who created you. Make the right choice. Choose God. Choose now, before its too late.

Global SITREP E4-14: A Psalm 83 Link to the Islamic State?

UPDATE 17 November 2014: According to a knowledgeable Kurdish military leader, the Western nations have severely underestimated the fighting strength and physical numbers of the Islamic State's forces.  The West (think Obama Administration) is operating under a false assessment that IS forces number in total about 31,500 men. However, Fuad Hussein, chief of staff of Kurdish president Massoud Barzani, makes the highly supportable assessment that the West's assessment is seven times lower than the true strength of the Islamic State forces. Kurdish field commanders say the true figure is closer to 200,000 that have joined, been assimilated through baya, or actively recruited from among the Sunni populace.

The Kurdish assessment is backed by the fact that IS is able to muster thousands of troops for major assaults simultaneously from Kobani in northern Syria, to Baghdad in Iraq and in several different locales in Kurdistan in between.  Based upon the territory under IS control in Iraq and Syria (2,500,000sq.km.) there are between 10 and 12 million Sunni men of fighting age in the pool of manpower IS can draw from. A Western commitment of boots-on-the-ground would have to be closer to the numbers of Desert Storm in 1991 (500,000 to 600,000) in order to "degrade and destroy" the Islamic State as the Obama Administration's plan exists today. Five bombing mission per day ain't gonna cut it.

16 November 2014: According to Islamic State caliph Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi's just released public communique, the list of Islamic State wilayat (provinces) based upon the baya (an Islamic binding oath of allegiance) received from these locales. In addition to Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Sinai and the Nile valley of Egypt (detailed below) the other acknowledged baya have come from al-Baghdadi's devoted followers in Saudi Arabia; Yemen; Algeria (Army of the Caliph); Libya (Majlis Shura Shabab al-Islam). Interestingly, some received baya have been ignored, particularly those received from non-Arab nations such as Pakistan, Indonesia and the Philippines.

This would indicate a distinct Arab supremacist nature is involved with the initial growth of the Islamic State. The acknowledgement of these baya is found in Islamic State references to these various places as, for example, Wilayat Sinai.  Next on the expansionist agenda are Wilayat Jordan and Wilayat Palestine, meaning all of Israel beginning with Judea, Samaria and Jerusalem.  The "liberation" of Jerusalem and the rest of "Palestine" is the primary task assigned to Wilayat Sinai, and their brethren in the Nile Valley who will wage war on the Egyptian government currently led by President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi whom they have identified as "Zionist collaborators." The Islamic State war against Egypt from within Sinai and the Nile Valley is to take precedence over the Liberation of Palestine and Jerusalem. (See Isaiah 19 and Ezekiel 29 for related Bible prophecy).

The Islamic State also has declared another of its objectives is to annihilate the Shi'a sect of Islam in Saudi Arabia, Yemen and, obviously, Iran and Lebanon. They will leave the jihad against the "Crusaders" to their core jihadist partners in Al Qaeda and its veterans in Syria, the newly identified Khorsan group.

15 November 2014: Exactly one month ago today in the first paragraph of Global SITREP D8-14: General Observations  I posted information regarding the Sunni terrorist group Ansar Beit al-Maqdis and how they had sworn their jihadist allegiance to the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, and who are largely funded by the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood - the same Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood that was so steadfastly supported by the Obama Administration in their uprising against former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak's government. Remember this because it is both very instructive about a president with two years remaining in the White House and who has long been at war with the government of the State of Israel.

I now report to you that Ansar Beit al-Maqdis, (a/k/a Ansar Jerusalem and 'Supporters of the Holy House' - which is the Dome of the Rock on Temple Mount) has gone well past declaring their allegiance to the Islamic State, they have begun declaring that the Sinai which they control is a wilayat (an Arab word meaning an administrative division, a province, a state) of the Islamic State. This is what the Islamic State's twitter feed banner above illustrates, that Sinai is a wilayat under the control of Ansar Beit al-Maqdis and is an official province of the Islamic State Caliphate.  

It may well be important for us to begin to understand this development in strictly prophetic terms and thus signalling the closeness of the coming final fulfillment of Psalm 83. At this time it does appear  that the Sinai Wilayat of the Islamic State represents the seventh of the ten groups identified by Asaph in Psalm 83 being an integral part of the confederacy of one consent seeking to destroy the State of Israel. The Sinai Wilayat of the Islamic State are  the Amalekites identified by Asaph in Psalm 83:5-8. There is also a branch of the Islamic State now active in the Nile Valley of Egypt as well.

The Amalekites were the very first enemy Israel encountered going back to antiquity when Israel wandered the wilderness of present-day Sinai and western Saudi Arabia in the days of Moses and Joshua after the exodus from Egypt. Exodus 17:8-16 provides a brief description of the first day-long battle between Israel and the Amalekites at Rephidim. Verses 14-16 foretell the final destruction of the Amalekites in the coming final fulfillment of Psalm 83.

As discussed in the previous series of Operation Protective Edge SITREPs, and as stated many times over by Israel's current leadership, HAMAS is Islamic State and Islamic State is HAMAS. Sunni jihadists are Sunni jihadists. HAMAS is born of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood; the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood is HAMAS. Islamic State is in Gaza. At some point HAMAS may announce this themselves, but that would merely a confirmation of what we already know. Also at some point the Obama Administration may have to throw their support for the Egyptian Muslim brotherhood under the proverbial bus because it has recently declared war on the Islamic State. Or has it? A few bombing sorties does not a "degrade and destroy" mission make, especially without a serious commitment of American boots on the ground to take and hold territory.

In the north, in Lebanon, the Islamic State has made its presence known in a very big way recently. And along the entire length of the Israel-Syria border in the Golan Heights the jihadists known as Jabhat al-Nusra (Al Qaeda) are now in full control and face the IDF directly across the DMZ after having defeated Syrian and Hezbollah forces seeking to regain control of the border town at Quneitra. Jabhat al-Nursa (Al Qaeda) and the Islamic State, as reported here in previous SITREPS, agreed to a merger of their forces and smaller Sunni jihadi militias into a unified Sunni jihadist force to coordinate their strategic war plans for the expansion of the Caliphate, most likely into Jordan. 

Without any significant opposing military force on the ground other than the outnumbered Kurds, it may only be a relatively brief amount of time before the Islamic State Caliphate is either composed of all ten groups identified by Asaph in Psalm 83 or it consults with their Shi'a enemies, perhaps after an unprecedented catastrophe has occurred in Damascus, to turn their weapons upon Israel for the final engagements of Psalm 83. It may well be that Psalm 83 finds its final fulfillment in a final regional war from Lebanon to the Sinai, with strong arm military hardware assistance from the Islamic State-controlled region of ancient Assur, between Israel and the new Caliphate. Keep watching as this develops.

Global SITREP E3-14: The Alliance of the North and the East

11 November 2014 (Veterans Day in the U.S.A.): The image above powerfully reminds me of something the angel Gabriel prophesied to Daniel which would occur during the 70th Week. 

That this passage of prophetic Scripture is with respect to and occurs during the 70th Week is beyond any doubt because it involves the Western Antichrist and four distinct military enemies of his: one to the North, one to the South and one to the East. Not coincidentally, this passage of prophetic verses proves beyond any doubt that the Antichrist is a Western power. Additionally, this passage is also a thumbnail of the world war which will  be occurring during the latter part of the Thlipsis (Tribulation) and all of the Megas Thlipsis (Great Tribulation) of the 70th Week. Moreover this is the war whose end is suddenly caused by the Second Coming of the Lord Jesus Christ at the Battle of Har Megiddo.

In Daniel 11:40-45 we find six sentences which describe an ongoing military confrontation between the Western Antichrist and two of the military camps which attack him simultaneously "at the time of the end."

In verse 40 the southern military forces launch a strike and the northern forces follow through on the attack by coming against him with modern-era, land, sea and air 'shock and awe' maneuver warfare. The military forces of the Western Antichrist parry and defeat this joint attack and then go on the offensive by invading, passing through and conquering the territories of these enemies. 

In verses 41through 43 we see this counter-offensive of the Western forces entering coastal Israel but avoiding those territories of the greater post-Psalm 83 Israel that will include ancient Edom, Moab and Ammon. These western forces conquer completely the lands from Libya, Egypt and and south along the Red Sea to Sudan, the land of ancient Kuwsh.

Finally in verse 44 we come to the direct association I see in the image above. The blitz-like military conquest of the whole of the Middle East by the Western Forces of the Antichrist causes the remaining forces of the North to be joined in a new offensive by the Eastern forces (i.e. the kings of the East): "But news from the east and the north shall trouble him; therefore he shall go out with great fury to destroy and annihilate many." This advance of the immense numbers of Eastern forces is what John the Revelator describes in Revelation 16:12-16 as the sixth bowl judgment of the sixth angel, a/k/a Armageddon.

Here's where I think this prophetic future has solid rubber meeting the road in the present time. An article published in yesterday's Financial Times, titled "Putin builds China links as ties with West fray," informs that the Russian Federation's newly updated military doctrine to be published in December 2014 clearly identifies the United States and NATO as the enemy, and the role of the CSTO as the military alliance referenced in the prophetic texts discussed above. 

To the readers of Eschatology Today, this is not really new news, but a reaffirmation of the prophetic interpretation I have published here over the past five years, here, here and here for instance. Just one more of the proverbial cans that have been kicked by mankind down a dark road one kick too far, and proof positive that our God is in full control having told us about the end from the beginning.

Global SITREP E2-14: 2015 Crescendo Coming

9 November 2015: I used the metaphor in SITREP D10-14 of the proverbial can having been kicked in darkness down the road as far as possible. Now I'm going to revise that to say there's more than one can, there are several of them. I think 2015 will be the year in which the real issues these cans represent either explode or are tossed into the rubbish bin of history. Many of these cans have their origins in the actions or inactions of the Obama Administration. These are the crescendos coming in 2015.

One of the most urgent is the Iranian nuclear issue. Under the U.S. Obama Administration the artifice of negotiating with Iran's Shi'a jihadists over their nuclear program may have all but resulted in the Ayatollah's possession of several Islamic bombs and Israel's realization that: a) PM Netanyahu has been thoroughly deceived, or b) the intelligence data Israel is likely to have provided to the US and IAEA was summarily ignored.

This morning all of Israel has been publicly informed in a published report in the UKs The Sunday Times that there are likely five times as many advanced design uranium enrichment centrifuges operating in Iran than are involved in the negotiation process. This means that even if Iran were to agree to halt the spinning of a thousand centrifuges, they'd still have another four thousand spinning their way to a fissile core for their weapons. The net result of this outright deception hands the Ayatollah his nukes and checkmates Israel through its acquiescing to the negotiations vice striking the Iranian program while it had every chance to do so.

This news comes from Olli Heinonen, the man who most recently was the IAEAs Deputy Director General of Safeguards. Heinonen now says Iran have have operational five times as many of the advanced carbon-fiber IR-2m centrifuges than Iran has admitted to possessing. The IR-2m centrifuges are also five times more effective than the obsolete IR-1 Iran has used in years past. 

So, where did Olli Heinonen get this new data? From "intelligence sources" which revealed that Iran had previously acquired the raw materials to have constructed several thousand IR-2m centrifuges beyond the one-thousand they've admitted to have operational, and that they have have them operational or on standby at enrichment sites beyond Natanz and Fordow. The deadline for an agreement between the E3/EU+3 (a/k/a P5+1) and Iran over its nuclear program is just 15 days away (24 November). 

Prophetically, Jeremiah 49:34-39 is the only Scripture we have to begin to understand what the future holds. On Eschatology Today we have discussed this prophecy at length previously over the past three years (SITREP B5:14; SITREP B7-13 and in "Jeremiah 49: Will a Coalition of Nations Move Against Iran?"). There is also Bill Salus' outstanding and highly recommended book published in July 2014, "Nuclear Showdown in Iran: Revealing the Ancient Prophecy of Elam."

Global SITREP E1-14: America Makes A Right Turn

5 November 2014:  A political tsunami has in a single day of mid-term election voting completely remade the Congress of these United States of America.  A great majority of "We the People" have exercised our Constitutional right and restored political power in the U.S. House of Representatives and in the U.S. Senate back to the Grand Old Party thereby putting an end to the unsavory pro-Marxist-Muslim agenda of the Obama Administration. Republicans, Democrats and especially the Independent, non-politically affiliated American voters have handed an anti-Obama mandate to our newly elected Representatives and Senators to radically change the direction that this country had been going in the past several years.

From the National Journal: Here's what the GOP electoral victories in the House of Representatives looks like graphically illustrated with every congressional district colored in red (GOP) or blue (DEM).

The net effect of this election upon the world will be profound, particularly in the Middle East with respect to our great ally, the State of Israel; in the war-torn region straddling the Tigris and Euphrates valleys; in Europe were a newly belligerent Russia has resorted to war to address political issues, and in the Pacific Rim.  Over the next two years great changes are going to occur, with many - if not most of them - having great prophetic significance. But first, and beginning in January 2015, there will be a reordering in these United States, even if temporary, to fully restore Constitutional rule, end executive fiat, and present an America to the world that is decidedly Christian in its principles as well as foreign and economic policies. This will be a resurgent United States of America, so help us God.

The Biblical Authority

Paul writing in Romans 13 under the authority and inspiration of the Holy Spirit, even while still a citizen of under the tyranny that was imposed by Imperial Roman Empire, and which he once faithfully served, said we are all subject to our governing authorities. Paul then explained why: "For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God. Therefore whoever resists the authority resists the ordinance of God, and those who resist will bring judgment on themselves."  The apostle Peter stated much the same thing in 1 Peter 2:13-14, and then amplified that in the next breath saying, "For this is the will of God, that by doing good you may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men: as free, yet not using liberty as a cloak for vice, but as servants of God." 

This is our duty as Christians and as Americans, and we have faithfully executed it as required of us. However, we have no such duty to obey rulers who impose by any means, such as laws or edicts, which would force us to disobey God or who evidence in themselves the traits of godlessness, evil manipulations and any dealings promoting a false religion in submission to a false god such as Islam is in this world. In this Proverbs 14:34 speaks very clearly. 

And this was the point where many of us quickly drew the line that we would not cross with the Obama Administration. Obviously, a great majority of us - Republican, Democrat and Independent, Bride of Christ and secular individuals alike - who decided that enough was enough. We Christians effected a change through our enfranchisement fully in faith that the political change would be in the furtherance of the Lord's will in these last days. Who among the Bride of Christ goes into a polling place without first praying in the Spirit for the Lord's perfect guidance? None of us I would like to believe. In a little over two months time, and going forward in the next two years, we will have an even greater opportunity to hold accountable those who we have placed in the various offices of our respective states and the Congress, because those we have just voted to remove paid no heed in their accountability to us under our chosen form of government. Our government as all human government exists under the Lord's establishment of the third dispensation, the dispensation of human government (Genesis 8:20 through Genesis 11:9), that will exist for us until the Harpazo, and for the world at-large until the second coming of Jesus Christ and the establishment of His Government.

We operate on a higher level, a Spiritual level, than those who remain in sin; it is our task to lead them by the power of the Holy Spirit towards righteousness. Our leadership is by example. We do not retreat and hide from the world, we are commanded by our Lord and Savior to go out and be fishers of men. As long as we, the Bride of Christ, walk upon this earth our purpose is clear because only God the Father knows when the fullness of the gentiles will have come in. The election is behind us, now we carry on.